.png)
Scott Shafer Clemson Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Scott Shafer
Syracuse vs. Clemson
October 5, 2013
On the crowd and SU’s performance against Clemson:
“Ever since I got this job I really wanted to represent this University in a classy fashion and I wanted this town to be excited about the way we play. A team that fights, like they fight in this community, and we asked for the crowd to be the 12th man today and they were great. We had a huge showing today and I was so proud to run through that tunnel and see our fans, our community, our students out there representing us and wanting us to be what we want to be. To be honest with you I think the fans did a better job than we did. We owe them more and we’re going to give them more. I just want to make sure everyone understands that I am so happy and proud of this community. We need to do a better job. We played a hell of a football team with a great coaching staff and we just weren’t good enough today, we gave them too many plays.
“The thing is, football is an emotional sport, anybody who knows me knows I’m extremely emotional, sometimes over the top. I said few things out there today that I feel bad about, I really do. In the heat of the moment they were the same things I said on the basketball court or the football field when I was a kid playing, but I’m an adult now and I need to constrain myself a little bit better. We’re going to fight the good fight, just like we want our kids to and I thought the kids did come out and fight. I was proud of the way they were fighting. We tried to pull everything out to make it respectable but we came up short and I just want everyone to understand that we got beat by a doggone good football team today. There is a reason why they are top-3 in the country and we just have to re-focus and move forward to this NC State game.”
On SU’s 323 rushing yards:
“I thought there were some good things, and I think there were too many negative plays, obviously, against a really good front four. Those are good looking kids over there. They did a nice job recruiting. I thought we sprung some good plays, I think Jerome [Smith] had the longest of his career and even toward the end with Devante [McFarlane]. I was pleased with those plays, we have to get rid of some of those negative plays and do a good job improving on the things that were ugly. We will get right to work on that tonight and tomorrow and try to solidify some things, but there were some good things. You have to look at the positives, especially when you get beaten by a good football team.”
On improvements to be made:
“It is one of those situations where you can’t give [the other team] plays, and we did. It was a situation where our kids have to do a better job seeing small targets under pressure. We talked about it all week but we didn’t do a good enough job, but that starts with me. I need to do a better job teaching, teaching the kids to see things with the speed of the game. These [Clemson] guys get up on you quick. Those are some talented kids in an excellent offensive scheme that Dabo [Swinney] has. Really what you have to do is look at the small targets and keep working on it, really do a better job of what I have been talking about all week.”
On coming out strong in the second half:
“I was proud of them. They kept fighting. They got knocked down, kicked around a little bit and character is revealed when things are down. At halftime I said it’s opposite day. Every thought in your mind that you want to go, you’re not going. We’re going to go out there and fight our butts off. I told them the crowd deserves it, they showed up today and we didn’t show up in the first half. Let’s give them a reason to stick around. I was proud of the fact that they did that and we tried to pull everything we could pull out of the book to make it exciting and try and get back in this thing, and for a minute there I thought we had a shot.”
On Clemson QB Tajh Boyd and the offense:
“[Tajh Boyd] is a very talented player. He makes plays with his feet as well as his arm. He’s perfect in that offense and they do a great job scheming it. They made a couple of nice wrinkle adjustments on how they made the power and they looped it back a different way than we were prepared for. They beat us on some plays, coaching-wise. He’s (Dabo Swinney)a heck of a coach, he’s an offensive coordinator.”
On second half defensive adjustments:
“We didn’t make too many adjustments, just seeing things better. We played the way we should have played in the first half. We made a couple of little adjustments. We still got beat on one of them. We made a little adjustment and still got beat, so hats off to them for being a good football team. Good players make plays sometimes, it’s just a doggone shame that we gave a few early. Really I think the kids saw things better and calmed down. I’ve got to be better playing to the calm side of things, too. We just have to keep on working hard and getting better on the little things.”
On SU quarterback Terrel Hunt:
“I like the fact that [Terrel] fights, I like the fact that he took off with the ball, made some plays with his feet. I’m sure there are going to be a lot of similarities with the secondary players to Terrel with his vision and seeing the right things when pressure is on. So it’s a great learning opportunity for all our players to really focus in on how to see the game better as they grow as young players, including Terrel.”
On what Shafer takes away from this game:
“You take lessons from every game you play in, no matter how old you get, how many games you coach, you continue to learn, as coaches first and players second. Every opportunity you have to play this game you can learn something new. As we watch this tape tonight and tomorrow we’ll learn a lot about who we are as players and coaches and try and get better every day. It’s as simple as that.”
Syracuse vs. Clemson
October 5, 2013
On the crowd and SU’s performance against Clemson:
“Ever since I got this job I really wanted to represent this University in a classy fashion and I wanted this town to be excited about the way we play. A team that fights, like they fight in this community, and we asked for the crowd to be the 12th man today and they were great. We had a huge showing today and I was so proud to run through that tunnel and see our fans, our community, our students out there representing us and wanting us to be what we want to be. To be honest with you I think the fans did a better job than we did. We owe them more and we’re going to give them more. I just want to make sure everyone understands that I am so happy and proud of this community. We need to do a better job. We played a hell of a football team with a great coaching staff and we just weren’t good enough today, we gave them too many plays.
“The thing is, football is an emotional sport, anybody who knows me knows I’m extremely emotional, sometimes over the top. I said few things out there today that I feel bad about, I really do. In the heat of the moment they were the same things I said on the basketball court or the football field when I was a kid playing, but I’m an adult now and I need to constrain myself a little bit better. We’re going to fight the good fight, just like we want our kids to and I thought the kids did come out and fight. I was proud of the way they were fighting. We tried to pull everything out to make it respectable but we came up short and I just want everyone to understand that we got beat by a doggone good football team today. There is a reason why they are top-3 in the country and we just have to re-focus and move forward to this NC State game.”
On SU’s 323 rushing yards:
“I thought there were some good things, and I think there were too many negative plays, obviously, against a really good front four. Those are good looking kids over there. They did a nice job recruiting. I thought we sprung some good plays, I think Jerome [Smith] had the longest of his career and even toward the end with Devante [McFarlane]. I was pleased with those plays, we have to get rid of some of those negative plays and do a good job improving on the things that were ugly. We will get right to work on that tonight and tomorrow and try to solidify some things, but there were some good things. You have to look at the positives, especially when you get beaten by a good football team.”
On improvements to be made:
“It is one of those situations where you can’t give [the other team] plays, and we did. It was a situation where our kids have to do a better job seeing small targets under pressure. We talked about it all week but we didn’t do a good enough job, but that starts with me. I need to do a better job teaching, teaching the kids to see things with the speed of the game. These [Clemson] guys get up on you quick. Those are some talented kids in an excellent offensive scheme that Dabo [Swinney] has. Really what you have to do is look at the small targets and keep working on it, really do a better job of what I have been talking about all week.”
On coming out strong in the second half:
“I was proud of them. They kept fighting. They got knocked down, kicked around a little bit and character is revealed when things are down. At halftime I said it’s opposite day. Every thought in your mind that you want to go, you’re not going. We’re going to go out there and fight our butts off. I told them the crowd deserves it, they showed up today and we didn’t show up in the first half. Let’s give them a reason to stick around. I was proud of the fact that they did that and we tried to pull everything we could pull out of the book to make it exciting and try and get back in this thing, and for a minute there I thought we had a shot.”
On Clemson QB Tajh Boyd and the offense:
“[Tajh Boyd] is a very talented player. He makes plays with his feet as well as his arm. He’s perfect in that offense and they do a great job scheming it. They made a couple of nice wrinkle adjustments on how they made the power and they looped it back a different way than we were prepared for. They beat us on some plays, coaching-wise. He’s (Dabo Swinney)a heck of a coach, he’s an offensive coordinator.”
On second half defensive adjustments:
“We didn’t make too many adjustments, just seeing things better. We played the way we should have played in the first half. We made a couple of little adjustments. We still got beat on one of them. We made a little adjustment and still got beat, so hats off to them for being a good football team. Good players make plays sometimes, it’s just a doggone shame that we gave a few early. Really I think the kids saw things better and calmed down. I’ve got to be better playing to the calm side of things, too. We just have to keep on working hard and getting better on the little things.”
On SU quarterback Terrel Hunt:
“I like the fact that [Terrel] fights, I like the fact that he took off with the ball, made some plays with his feet. I’m sure there are going to be a lot of similarities with the secondary players to Terrel with his vision and seeing the right things when pressure is on. So it’s a great learning opportunity for all our players to really focus in on how to see the game better as they grow as young players, including Terrel.”
On what Shafer takes away from this game:
“You take lessons from every game you play in, no matter how old you get, how many games you coach, you continue to learn, as coaches first and players second. Every opportunity you have to play this game you can learn something new. As we watch this tape tonight and tomorrow we’ll learn a lot about who we are as players and coaches and try and get better every day. It’s as simple as that.”
